Questions from a new cat mom

traveil

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Hi all, i will be going overseas soon and my cat will be placed to my friend's house for a good 9 days. Any tips for me so that i can tell her the do and don'ts to do? She has rear pets before like chicken (LOL) but not cats so i'm a bit worried for my little furkid especially since my cat used to be a stray (I recently adopted her 2 months ago).

A little background on my furkid and questions i would like to ask too :
1) Shes a tortie and about 7 yrs old, stray and recently adopted her 2 months ago
2) She HATES cages and places that are enclosed (is it normal?) My cat tree has a little house in it but she never wants to get in
3) She's quite smart...i changed her litter box to another brand and she didn't use it for days until i changed it back...
4) She somehow can unlatch her collar when she does not feel like wearing =.=
5) She likes to run around the house chasing nothing.......again...is this normal?

What can i do to make her feel comfortable at other people's house?
 

Margret

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1) Shes a tortie and about 7 yrs old, stray and recently adopted her 2 months ago
Oh, my. That means that, on top of being recently adopted she has "tortitude," the typical stuck up attitude that's especially common in torties. Basically, a more intense version of "cattitude," the typical feline attitude of superiority. Up to you whether you want to warn your friend about this or not; it could predispose her to see problems.

As a recently feral cat your baby is probably accustomed to looking after herself, which means that she should cope well. On the other hand, you don't want her to feel abandoned since you're leaving town this soon after adopting her. Before you go, I recommend getting a really good workout, wearing an old tee-shirt, so the shirt gets all sweaty and smells strongly of you. Include that shirt in your cat's bedding while you're gone, to reassure her. And warn your friend about it so she doesn't do you the favor of washing the shirt for you.

2) She HATES cages and places that are enclosed (is it normal?) My cat tree has a little house in it but she never wants to get in
This is a matter of individual taste; it varies greatly from cat to cat. A formerly feral cat may very easily see small enclosed spaces as some sort of trap. Don't worry about it too much.

3) She's quite smart...i changed her litter box to another brand and she didn't use it for days until i changed it back...
Be sure to include her preferred litter box in the things you take to your friend's house with the cat. Also include extra litter, of the brand your cat is accustomed to.

4) She somehow can unlatch her collar when she does not feel like wearing =.=
That's actually quite easy to do - all a cat has to do is catch the collar on something and off it comes. Some cats figure this out immediately, others never do (or else don't really care once they're used to the collar). There are collars available made from fabric-covered Neoprene, fastened with Velcro, that are harder to remove - you get one exactly the right size for your cat so there's no big gap for things to catch in. (beastie band cat collars) If it ever does get caught the Neoprene stretches so your cat can get free, but it's much harder for the cat to deliberately slip the collar. There are some problems with these, however:
  • They're expensive.
  • They're presumably available from some brick and mortar retailers, but I've only ever found them online, which means it will take a while to get one.
  • Due to scratching and such, these collars become quite ratty in fairly short order, so you have to replace them every year or so.
An easier solution is to get some pretty elastic, 1/2 inch wide or so, a small D-ring you can sew into a fold of the elastic (for attaching tags), and a bit of Velcro and make one yourself. Once again, the collar needs to be snug to prevent it from getting caught on things, either deliberately or accidentally.

5) She likes to run around the house chasing nothing.......again...is this normal?
:lol: Oh yeah. Any cat who doesn't occasionally get "the zoomies" is probably ill.

What can i do to make her feel comfortable at other people's house?
I've already mentioned the tee-shirt trick, and including her very own litter box and the "right" kind of litter. If your cat has any favorite toys, make sure those go along as well, along with whatever bedding she normally uses. Be sure to get plenty of food for her, whatever kind she's accustomed to eating, and write down her feeding schedule for your friend. If your cat has dedicated dishes, include them when you take her to your friend's house. If your cat has a scratching post, take it along, and put some fresh catnip on it (and if your cat doesn't have a scratching post, get one!). At home she may just use the cat tree, but I suspect that it's too much to take that along to your friend's house for the duration. To properly protect your friend's furniture you may want to send 2 scratching posts with her.

Be sure to write down the phone number of your vet for your friend, in case of emergencies, and let your vet know that you're good for any bills that may be run up while you're out of town. (It probably won't be necessary, but if it is you'll be glad you took care of it in advance.) And make sure your friend has your cell phone number. Also, some cats can distinguish human voices on the phone and like to be talked to by their humans when their humans are out of town - my Pretzel would purr into the phone whenever I called home while I was on a long road trip in 2001.

If possible, ask your friend to come to your house to meet your cat in advance, under less stressful circumstances. Inviting your friend over for dinner is an ideal way to do this; it gives your cat time to warm up to your friend and see her as someone who belongs. Warn your friend that cats find staring to be threatening, and tell her that your cat is more likely to come around to say "Hello" if your friend ignores her. And tell your friend about slow blinks - when a cat looks at you and gives you a slow blink that means she likes and trusts you, and the correct response is to return the slow blink. It's also a way for a human to communicate affection and trust directly to the cat, even though the cat may not respond in kind (trust takes time to build).

Oh, yeah. And invest in some Feliway. You can find it at most good pet stores. It's a synthetic version of the pheromones that cats use to mark their own territory. You can get it in spray form, and have your friend give a spritz near your cat's bedding every day, to make her feel more at home. It's also available in a bottle that attaches to a wall plug-in, to keep a minimal level in the air at all times, but there have been some reports of fires started by the plug-ins so I try to avoid those. Feliway doesn't work for all cats, but when it does work it's extremely helpful.

Note: Warn your friend not to spritz too much Feliway; if she does the smell can be quite strong. As in, I have congenital anosmia (I was born with almost no sense of smell at all), and when I sprayed too much Feliway even I could smell it. Quite pungent.

Margret
 
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